Agilent India launches first United Way campaign
Agilent's objective as a global corporate citizen is to be an economic, intellectual and social asset in each nation and community in which it does business. An integral part of this is active community involvement. As part of this commitment, in the midst of difficult economic circumstances, India launched the “Giving Campaign” for the first time. In the first year of its launch, Agilent employees donated more than one million rupees (USD $25,000) for this noble cause. A number of leaders passionately drove the campaign across their teams. Each team worked at a target goal. Close to 40 percent of the entire organization participated, with some teams garnering 100 percent participation.

Venkatesh Valluri, President and Country Manager, Agilent India, personally introduced the United Way concept, its vision and mission to the Agilent India employees in Gurgaon, India—a community with no past United Way presence. Venkatesh and his leadership team member, Swati Bhattacharya reiterated Agilent's global commitment to corporate social responsibility when meeting with the leadership team and associates. As this was a first-time effort, the team organized a series of educational meetings to outline how the United Way in Gurgaon will work in the community. Employee events were held to generate interest and excitement in the program and a payroll giving campaign was launched. The launch was extremely successful and aided by visual reinforcement in the form of balloons, posters and banners in all the seven Agilent offices in India.

An employee summed up the spirit of volunteerism and giving and said, "The organization paved the way for [employees] to start giving back to our communities. Over the years, we were inspired by Agilent's CSR activities, fueled by the personal time and monetary investment by the senior leadership team. We are proud to work for a company that is a good corporate citizen, in addition to being a great employer." Agilent is one of the first multinational to run a United Way Giving Campaign in India. Other multinational corporations plan to replicate the Agilent experience.